Springfield School District employees who handle large sums of money could soon be under tighter scrutiny and subject to financial background checks.

In response to a Southeast High School bookkeeper being arrested in October for allegedly stealing more than $100,000, district officials say they’ve begun implementing more stringent safeguards.

Gina McLaughlin-Schurman, the district’s human resources director, said the district is in preliminary talks with a third-party provider to perform financial background checks.

Criminal background checks are currently done on employees, but those checks may not detect serious financial struggles, McLaughlin-Schurman said.

A review by The State Journal-Register found that the bookkeeper, Amy Day, 44, appeared to have had significant financial troubles for more than 20 years, despite overseeing thousands in Southeast High’s finances.

Day and her husband filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and had their wages garnished by a court order more than a dozen times to settle small claims against them since 1990

Day has pleaded not guilty to one count of theft of more than $100,000, a Class 1 felony that carries a penalty ranging from probation to four to 15 years in prison.

She has been out of jail since Oct. 25 after posting a $5,000 bond and no longer works for the school district.

McLaughlin-Schurman said the financial background checks would be limited to people who deal with large accounts and would not include every person who works at a concession stand, for example.

The district is still negotiating the cost per employee screened.

“You can never completely protect yourself, but if there are red flags, we definitely would want to know that ahead of time,” she said.

Financial background checking is one of several steps the district is taking to prevent something similar from occurring in the future, according to outgoing interim superintendent Bob Leming.

The district hired a firm to conduct a forensic audit to determine how much money was stolen from the Southeast accounts and whether anyone else was involved. Officials believe Day acted alone, he said.

Joe Bascio, the district’s interim business services director, said the audit should wrap up in a few weeks. When the audit determines how much money was taken, the district can submit an insurance claim and recoup the full amount minus a $10,000 deductible, Bascio said.

He also said his office will audit school records on a more regular basis to compare what’s listed in a school account versus the amount of money in the bank. Those checks used to be done only once per year, he said.

In addition, Leming said the plan is to retrain staff to better enforce the district’s current policy of having two people sign off on deposits.